1. Field
This application relates to record management systems and methods, including record management systems and methods that manage the disposition of records and withhold records from these dispositions.
2. Related Art
A broad variety of records often need to be managed, such as records relating to transactions, designs, safety, maintenance, and communications, including e-mails. These records are often managed by computers in what are commonly known as record management systems.
Record management systems often provide a variety of functions. One common function is to manage the disposition of records, such as the destruction, transfer, review and/or archiving of records. The record management system may be used to identify records that are ripe for a particular disposition and/or to track their disposition status.
Dispositions are often performed in accordance with established policies. One policy, for example, might be to destroy all records that are older than six years.
Records sometimes need to be withheld from one or more dispositions that would otherwise result by the application of disposition policies. For example, certain records might need to be exempted from a policy that calls for the destruction of all records that are older than six years to preserve them as evidence for litigation, such as litigation relating to insurance or product liability claims. Another example is withholding certain records from a disposition because of an internal or IRS audit.
The approaches used by current record management systems for withholding records from dispositions are sometimes less than completely satisfactory. One approach, for example, has been to place an entire branch of records in a hierarchical system on hold. Unfortunately, the records that must be withheld from the disposition sometimes do not correspond precisely with a branch in the hierarchy. To ensure complete coverage, a very high branch in the hierarchy must sometimes be selected. This may result in some records being erroneously withheld from the disposition.
Another approach has been to search for the needed records. This approach, however, can sometimes be time-consuming, particularly when a large number of records must be withheld.
New records are often added to the record management system after the disposition of certain, existing records has already been placed on hold. Sometimes, some of these new records should also be withheld from the disposition. However, this may not occur because they are added after the hold had been applied.
Locating and marking records to be withheld from a disposition can also sometimes consume a great deal of processing power, sometimes causing delays in other processing functions, such as the transfer of information into or out of the system through the user interface.